Eighty-four readings ... would trigger a full-scale federal investigation if these communities were hazardous waste sites.

March 27, 2006, 12:35PM | IN HARM'S WAY | Troubled neighbors | By DINA CAPPIELLO | Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

People who live nearest to the area's refineries and petrochemical complexes have little idea what's in the air that blows across industry's fence line and into their lives.
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The Chronicle collected air samples on three days last summer in four communities in Houston, Baytown, Freeport and Port Neches. The test was carried out with the same equipment used by plant workers to detect hazardous chemicals in the air, and the samples were analyzed for 18 toxic substances by the University of Texas School of Public Health.

The results of the Chronicle's investigation show that the region's refining and petrochemical industries are in some places contributing to what leading experts on toxic air pollution would consider a risky load of "air toxics," substances that can cause cancer, kidney and liver damage, or other serious health effects in places where people live and work, and where children play.

At 49 of the 100 locations where the newspaper hung air monitors, attaching them to structures such as windowsills, clotheslines, swing sets and Christmas light strands, the quantities of up to five different chemicals would have exceeded levels considered safe in other states with stricter guidelines for air toxics. Unlike the more well-known air pollutants that cause asthma and respiratory effects, the compounds found at elevated levels by the Chronicle have all been linked to cancer. More specifically:

· Levels of the human carcinogen benzene were so high in Manchester and Port Neches that one scientist said living there would be like "sitting in traffic 24-7."

· Eighty-four readings measured by the Chronicle were high enough that they would trigger a full-scale federal investigation if these communities were hazardous waste sites.

· Some compounds detected by the Chronicle, such as the rubber ingredient 1,3-butadiene found at four homes in the Allendale area near Manchester, if inhaled over a lifetime at the concentrations found, could increase a person's chances of contracting cancer, according to federally determined risk levels. Concentrations here were as much as 20 times higher than federal guidelines used for toxic waste dumps.

Such levels attract little attention in Texas and especially in Houston, which for more than half a century has been home to one of the nation's largest industrial complexes and some of the most powerful petrochemical and oil companies. ...